The reading list that shames our teenagers

THE best readers at secondary school are failing to stretch themselves and choosing ‘easy’ books far below their ability levels, a major study has revealed.

It found the brightest are opting for ‘endless’ texts from Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series and the novels of David Walliams including Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy.

These books are also popular among ‘struggling readers’ at secondary school as well as primary pupils from the age of seven onwards, according to the report by the education assessment provider Renaissance UK.

It found 16 out of 20 of the most popular books in secondary schools, among pupils up to the age of 16, are written by Kinney and Walliams.

University of Dundee academic Professor Keith Topping, who analysed the data for the study, said it was ‘rather depressing’ that pupils were reading so much by the two authors.

‘The other issue is that Kinney and Walliams seem to be making no effort to increase the difficulty of some of their books,’ he added.

‘Now they have an apparently captive readership, they could introduce harder books which children would certainly read.’

Renaissance UK’s 12th annual report examined the reading comprehension and habits of more than 1.1million pupils throughout the UK and Ireland.

It found that across the secondary school years, pupils capable of reading books suitable for those older than them were consistently choosing lower-level works.

Those aged 13 to 16, for example, regularly read books on average ‘at least three years below their chronological age’. The report says pupils return to read ‘endless Jeff Kinney books, presumably on the basis that they “like the author’’’.